Now he hopes it carries over to the second half of the season.
Carolina is 2-6 at the midway point, but Rivera believes Newton has regained his swagger after engineering three touchdown drives to help the Panthers snap a five-game losing streak and finally close out an opponent. Carolina led in the fourth quarter of its previous four games only to lose all four.

Rivera says "it's all about confidence" for his second-year QB and "to finally have so many things go right, that's big for an individual. ... and it's big for the team."